If you weren't already eager to take in one of Hudson County's premier high school rivalries tonight, last week's proceedings certainly kicked things up a notch.

When Union City and North Bergen collide in their annual North Hudson grudge match at 7 p.m. at Bruins Stadium, one team is seeking revenge from last season's crushing postseason defeat, while the other hopes the bright lights of this marquee matchup speed up its maturation process.

The extra tension tonight? Above all, both Union City (0-1) and North Bergen (0-1) look to stave off 0-2 starts at the other's expense.

"That was a motivational point in the offseason," said Union City coach Wil Valdez. "We felt we should have beat them that game, too. We definitely feel a sense of unfinished business."

Valdez's group enters tonight's game, which will be broadcast Monday a 7:30 p.m. on MSG Varsity, looking to correct the mistakes that led to a 34-22 defeat by Shabazz last Friday. The Soaring Eagles led 16-0 at halftime, but saw a rash of turnovers doom their hopes of opening the season with a victory.

"Last week, we were successful three-quarters of the way," said Valdez. "Our youth basically shot us in the foot. We have a lot of talented young kids that it's their first go-around in varsity football."

As for North Bergen, the Bruins struggled to stop the run in Saturday's rematch of the 2011 North 1, Group 4 title game, falling to Montclair, 21-6.

"We're getting better and better. I wish I had another one or two more scrimmages before Montclair, that would have been more learning experience for us," said North Bergen's first-year coach, Czar Wiley. "I think we learned about ourselves a lot."

Yet, chief among the Bruins' priorities is stopping Union City's rushing attack. The team's defense, which spearheaded last year's title run, surrendered over 200 yards on the ground against Montclair.

That key element has been a point of emphasis this week in North Bergen."That was one thing we harped on all week. We were doing tackling drills all day," said Wiley. "That was the one thing defensively that we feel we have to get a lot better at, was tackling."

And if the Bruins can shore up their run defense, expect tonight's edition of the annual rivalry game to follow the profile of its predecessors. Defense has dominated the series, as the last five meetings have seen a combined 85 points scored, including just 43 points in last year's games.

"Obviously there's a high level of motivation and focus not only because of what happened in the past (against North Bergen), but because what a win could do for us," Valdez said.